Powerful Thoughts

It is bad for the mind to be always part of unanimity. (Christopher Morley)

When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds; your mind transcends limitations; your consciousness expands in every direction; and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be. (Patanjali)

I will govern my life my life and thoughts as if the whole world were to see the one, and read the other. (Seneca)

There is nothing noble in being superior to others. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self. (Ancient Indian Proverb)

Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one stage of success to another, forming new wishes and seeing them gratified. He that labors in any great or laudable undertaking has his fatigues first supported by hope and afterwards supported by joy. (Samuel Johnson)

Of all the beautiful truths pertaining to the soul which have been restored and brought to light in this age, none is more gladdening or fruitful of divine promise and confidence than this – that you are the master of your thought, the molder of your character, and the maker and shaper of condition, environment and destiny. (James Allen)

I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be “Happy.” I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be compassionate. It is, above all, to matter: to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you have lived at all. (Leo C. Rosten)

To laugh often, and love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children, to earn the approbation of honest critics; to appreciate beauty; to give of one’s self, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived – that is to have succeeded. (Emerson)

What is will be five years from now depends on two primary influences – the people you associate with, and the books you read. (Robin Sharma)

I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations. (George Bernard Shaw)

The heights great men achieved and kept,

Were not attained by sudden flight.

But they, while their companions slept,

Were toiling upward in the night. (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)

Note: These quotes appear in different books by Robin Sharma. A partial list of his books is given here.